DANA KUHNThe Village, formerly known as Small Group Housing, lies at the northwest corner of campus and is commonly perceived as a quiet and obscure part of the University. Six students and the Village director hope to change this view.
“Cheryl [Stephens] is the new [director] of the Village, and when she came in, she wanted to make it more of a proactive thing,” said Village Assembly President Richard Hillesheim, a junior. “We held elections for offices this year. Our sight, our goal, our reason for existence, is sort of to draw attention to the Village-to make this a place with a unique culture.”
Hillesheim drew a distinction between the Village Assembly and the Congress of the South 40.
“The Congress of the South 40 is obviously in charge of the 40 and they have their own culture down there,” said Hillesheim. “[But with] the Village being a relatively new thing, we wanted to start the ball rolling and get some kind of entity for this end of campus.”
A common goal of the seven individuals is to give the Village Assembly responsibilities other than social programming.
“This year, we took the approach that [the Village Assembly] just wouldn’t be a programming board, because there’re lots of programming options,” said Stephens. “The hope is to improve the quality of life-the feel of the entire area. Some of that might be through offering some programs that are going to bring people together, but it might also [come about] through some physical improvements.”
One example of this initiative is the set of hammocks that were installed and tweaked for student use earlier this year. Though this was a project talked about in the past, it was finally realized under the watch of this year’s Village Assembly.
The current representatives in the Village Assembly have made arrangements to install a large exterior bulletin board to facilitate student awareness. The Assembly also hopes to convert one of the dining rooms in the Seigle Commons into a gaming room furnished with a foosball table, air hockey table, couches and assorted board games.
The Village Assembly also hopes to bring a monument to the Village Green, the recently named field at the center of The Village. It would serve as a more robust version of the Bunny.
“We’re thinking of finding a monument of a bear to put somewhere in the field and have students reserve it and paint it as a fun thing to do on the weekend,” said Hillesheim.
He added that students could also dress the monument up or advertise on it.
The Village Assembly also hopes to release two editions of its new newsletter, “The Village Crier,” each semester. The Assembly released its first edition of the Crier on Nov. 7.
Other substantial changes attributed to this year’s Assembly include changes in the Village’s dining options. Within the first two weeks of the year, dinner offerings were expanded to accommodate patrons on the weekends after the Assembly rallied approximately 300 students to e-mail Vice Chancellor for Students Steven Hoffner and express their discontent with the dining situation. Since Nov. 4, lunch has been offered from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily as a pilot program.
Aside from all of these projects, the Assembly still organizes programming events. The naming of the “Village Green” last week came as the culmination of a naming contest designed to make Village residents feel integral to the community. It also recently premiered the Village Music Series, a venue in which student musicians perform in the Commons while other students gather for entertainment and edibles provided by Kayak’s Coffee. The Assembly hopes to turn the Music Series into a regular event.
“We’re working to make things stick for the long run,” said junior Jesse Liebmann, the Village Assembly’s external vice president. “[For example,] we don’t want to put on a barbeque and assume that that’s our role on campus. What we want to do is put on a barbeque where everyone comes together for an entire afternoon for a variety of food offerings.”
All of this semester’s projects serve to unite the Village and foster a greater sense of community and camaraderie among residents, fraternities and apartment dwellers.
“In developing the community, we’re hoping that people start realizing that it’s not that bad a place,” said Liebmann. “People are starting to realize that when you have a group of six people that meet together every week…[and] do something, even a little bit, stuff gets done.”
Other representatives of the Village Assembly include Internal Vice President Jon Kardon, a junior, Director of Finance Michelle Wang, a sophomore, Director of Communications Stephanie Roberson, a sophomore, and Director of Facilities and Services Jennifer Mitchell, a sophomore.